How Jiu-jitsu and Wrestling Build your "Inner Citadel"

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.Last Week I recorded a podcast on “Building Your inner Citadel”  but, to be honest, it was a long one so today, I’m going to try to give you the Sparknotes (do kids still use those?) version of that. 

I’m a big believer in stoicism which is a philosophy of the ancient Greeks and Romans that looks to maximize positive emotions, reduce negative ones and maximize the strength of their character.

Within stoicism, there is a concept called Building your inner Citadel. A citadel, for those who don't know, is a fortress  and to build your inner citadel means to strengthen yourself both mentally and physically during good times so you have the strength you need during bad times

Jiu-jitsu and Wrestling can play huge roles in helping the building process

Even in the best of times, when things are going great, both of these sports offer a level of physical and mental challenge that forces you to grow even by 1% every day. This constant growth and daily leveling up help to build your reserves so that when things aren't going so great, you can “break glass” and have something to carry you through.

Training is only one piece of the puzzle though, How else can we go about building our citadel?

Understand that You Choose Your Response in any situation

We like to look at things as “Good” or “Bad” but in reality, it is our response to any situation that really defines how a situation will be. For example, let's say you won $100 Million Dollars, everyone would see that as an inherently “Good” thing, but your response to winning the money is that you become a huge jerk, you alienate the family and friends that stuck by you through thick and thin, everyone leaves you and you’re left alone in an empty house

Was winning that money really a “good” thing?

On the flip side, say your house catches on fire, but your family makes it out alive, your friends and neighbors all come out to support you, and you have a new perspective and lease on life.

Was that fire necessarily a “bad” thing?

Everything comes down to choice.

Wins or losses in Jiu-jitsu and wrestling work the same way. If your biggest win causes you to get complacent, not work as hard, and not reach your full potential, was it really “good”? Or if your biggest loss was the catalyst for you to work harder, fix your mistakes, and become better than you were before, was that bad?

Your response Is always in your control.

Connect to your Higher Self

This is gonna sound real granola but stick with me.

When people talk about connecting to your higher self, what they essentially mean is the most perfect version of yourself, a version of yourself that isn’t weighed down by your ego, and it's his/her job to help steer you on your optimal path. Probably the easiest way that I can describe it  is, Imagine this most perfect version of yourself is like a coach who sits down and does a film review session of everything that you did in your day; your interactions with people, your nutrition habits, your practice habits; everything.

Would your “coach” be happy with everything that you’re doing? Do your actions align with your goal of reaching your highest potential?

If not, you need to change your actions.

Love everything, even if you don’t like it.

Whether its Jiu-jitsu, wrestling, or life, you are not going to like everything that you need to do on a daily basis, and that is OK even if you don’t like them, you should learn to LOVE them, because they are going to make you better. Don’t like burpees? Cool. love the gas tank they’re going to give you. Hate vegetables? Awesome. Love the shape they’ll get you in. Hate to read? Love the knowledge reading will give you.

Think of the type of advantage that consistently doing (and loving) things that you don’t like to do will give you over your competition, think about what developing that type of discipline will do for you not only in your athletic career but in your life.

Fall in love with the things you don’t like and nothing can stop you from reaching your goals and fulfilling your potential!

Reframe to reclaim

Negative thoughts will kill your progress. Every single time. Now, positive thoughts aren't always the best but that's a blog for another time.. So what do we do when those negative thoughts start popping up?  Reframe them.

So for example, let's say you lose a tournament, and you think “this sucks, I’m terrible, and I’m never going to get better”

That's a lot of heavy pressure

But what if you said, “didn't go the way I wanted, but I know what needs to be fixed, back to work this week”

This acknowledges that you’re not happy, I'm a big believer in expressing your emotion, not being fake, but also as  all these negative thoughts and feelings are temporary, they are issues that can and (more importantly) WILL get fixed.

Think about Death.

Whoa. this just took a turn huh?

I promise it's not AS morbid as it sounds. 

Marcus Aurelius said “if you want to live a good life, think about death” What this means is think about how short life is, that it can be taken away from you at any moment, so if you really want something, you should pursue it with everything you have because we only get one opportunity in this life.

It also speaks to the idea that everything is temporary. The good, the bad; Everything. So try not to dwell. Those moments that feel like the worst thing, in the world? They’ll pass. Same thing with those really great moments, celebrate them. Have a blast! For a little bit, and then work on your next goal and keep leveling up and improving; live the most fulfilled virtuous life you can in the time you have on earth.

Most of us have heard the Latin phrase Carpe Diem or seize the day. Marcus would probably take that a step further and say Carpe Arete or seize excellence making sure that you take advantage of each MOMENT of the day, not just the day itself

There you have it.

The world is tough. It seems like every day we are forced to make difficult decisions, to face difficult situations, and we need to be able to do that with the clearest of minds to make the best decisions.

Fortunately, challenges you meet on the mat, during every practice can carry over and help to build your mental strength off the mat as well!